I never understood how non-British people could "get" Mark E Smith and the Fall, but I suppose genius can transcend culture. This is a great run through their discography. Thank you!
I suppose it's akin to Brits getting the Blues musicians of the American South - or Chicago by way of - and early rock'n'roll by extension of that - going back to the early sixties. Or like with Northern Soul and Motown (both examples retrieved many American artists from utter obscurity). And yet the British Invasion took the states by storm nonetheless. So, something like, "Yeah, yeah, industrial estate," I'll never fully understand it but I get the gist. I also enjoy discovering little allusions by happenstance, e.g. I only recently learned that Wigan Casino was a Northern Soul club. Now a band like Lindisfarne puts me at a bit more of a loss, and I've no idea why there might be an A-Bomb on Wardour Street, although I intuit such a thing would be a Suspect Device indeed. ; ) Cheers from across the pond.
I grew up in Oklahoma in the 70s and 80s with almost no exposure to good music, but had a feeling that there had to be something out there that I would like--something that would be my kind of music. And at the age of 23 in 1989 happened to push "play" on a German friend's portable mono cassette player that began to play "Frenz" from "The Frenz Experiment". 22 seconds in, I heard Mark's voice saying "Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah...." and I knew I had discovered my band for life! For me, they are the only band that really matters.
I'm 61yrs young. I can track my life by Fall albums. I know exactly where I was when each of them were released. I met Mark once. He'd just finished a poetry reading in Trinity College, Dublin. He was looking for a decent pub. I took him to a pub I was barred from. It was funny.
@@awarewolves1712 Ob course they did... I had MES with me. The funniest part of it all is that I used to DJ in the same pub a couple of months earlier. I got barred for playing Wu Tang shit before it was acceptable. It was a different time. Everyone had short hair. There was no internet. Nobody used bad language, except Ol' Dirty.
@@tonysmyth4116 Ah, that makes it even better. ODB was a genius, hell all the Wu Tang's records are fantastic. Have you heard Death Grips? If not, search "Exmilitary" and give it a listen.
@@tonysmyth4116 That is indeed a great anecdote. I am not sure I would have had the confidence to approach MES. Well, Wu Tang Clan ain't nuthing ta f'wit!
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249 The poetry reading was a tiny event. I only knew it was on because a mate told me his mate organised it. 30 people in the audience, tops. No band... Guess what happened? That's right, EVERYBODY went backstage and had a few cans. And when the rider ran out Mark asked ME where the nearest decent pub was. I panicked and chose the nearest one that was decent, forgetting that I was barred. And that's how I plucked up the courage to talk to MES and fucked it up at the same time. I'm no hero.
Thanks--very comprehensive, or as comprehensive as time allows. And great quoted lyrics--with only a few errors ; ) 35:48 is utterly fantastic. Also, I have that comic. I wish she would come out with part 2.
Thank you for watching! And yeah, when that popped up on Curb Your Enthusiasm it was an unlikely Larry David/Fall crossover. That Una Baines comic is great. Agree there needs to be more.
Enjoyed this. Found this clip by clicking on your comments off the combing the stacks videos. I love the Fall but my family hates them. Wish Slang King and Just Step Sideways got mentioned 😢
Thanks for watching! I certainly have people in my life who are a hard sell on The Fall. No disrespect to either of those songs, their catalog is so full of gems it was hard to mention them all.
You remember that song , oh about ten years ago , with the lyric , ' why do you want to put stars in your eyes ' ? . Well Mark E Smith made that reference on the song Room to Live .
Just Jack ! That's right , I never knew if they were Fall fans or not , it wouldn't surprise me though ! Anyway , I subscribed to your channel , I really did like these 2 Fall videos ! You did a great job of reviewing the records ! He really was quite remarkable wasn't he , the like we will never see again !
I was very skeptical before you started speaking, but you really impressed me with your factual knowledge and solid interpretation of an eccentric subject. Kudos to you ( I've never really understood what a 'kudo' is, but I think it's a plaudit, whatever a plaudit might be.) Anyway, well done and thanks for your hard work. Long time Fall fan.
Thank you! I am relieved a long time Fall fan could find something to enjoy. I was aiming more for new Fall listeners. Probably because some of the Fall's fanbase are extremely knowledgeable and lived a lot of this. That can be pretty intimidating. I am with you on kudos and plaudits, but thank you for the sentiment.
Somehow, through all the great weirdness that is The Fall, one of the primary reasons I'm such a huge fan is that the majority of people hate their music on first listen and I've never met anyone in person who claims to be a Fall fan. I must be doing something right.
Same. And seeing them live. Were they great? brilliant? or a bloody racket? Weirdly compelling. Saw them many times but still not sure what I was seeing. Maybe that was the secret, the unknowing.
@mesolithicman164 I'm an American, and never got to see Mark play. He didn't make too many trip across the pond, and when he did, something bad usually happened to him, so I can't blame him for not coming. I had tickets to the NY show, but he never made it back over. RIP Mark
I've been a Fall fan since Witch Trials. Dragnet was never released in my neighbourhood, (ireland), as far as I know. I could never find it. I could find everything else, but never Dragnet. (Back in the vinyl daze) Then I moved to London around the time of Extricate and got a job in Tower Records. I stole so many CDs back then. The rest is history. Good history.
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249 Thank you man! Seems like I have found a person who can explain "Early Days of Channel Fuehrer" to me. Greets from Zagreb, Croatia!
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249 Not a problem. I respect your attitude towards it. It's a thing like, who ever I ask, no one want's to talk about it. I'll keep on searching but still remaining here cos you make very good videos. Greets from Balkan hellhole.
@@tompanoname3579 It is one of my favorite Fall tracks. Beautiful and captivating. And even funny - "Where've all the choccies gone?" From all the analyses I have read, it might still be MES traveling and landing at Heathrow. But it does seem to be hinting at more. And I think that whatever that is will remain just out of reach, at least for me.
One reason they never had a hit We all listened to Radio 1 in those days , never heard the Fall on daytime radio , of course John Peel and others at night time , but never in the day ! I bet all those creepy daytime DJ's hated The Fall
Certainly John Peel helped an enormous amount , being his favorite band , and he was very influential of course ! He managed to get them their first appearance on The Tube , which at that time was the cool music show to be on ! I saw them twice in the early eighties , so I guess touring was good for them ! And also getting involved with Michael Clarke probably brought a much larger audience ! I think around that time they did have a couple of cover songs in the charts , Ghost in my House and Victoria ! And I guess just sheer talent , also he was in the music papers a lot in those days , usually being a bit naughty , but some people like that ! It's forever baffling why the masses like ' nice songs ' , well not baffling , but they just aren't open to anything else !
@@MadderMel Thanks for that insight. I live in such a naive bubble and assume that good music will be heard. But you are right, there are so many gatekeepers even now, and so many people that gravitate to the easily digestible.
What about the rumour that they were signed to Tamla Mowtown and got dropped because of the first verse in the The Classical? "This is the home of the brave This is the home of the Brave Where are the obligiitary (N-word)s Hey there fuckface Hey there fuck face" Is that just a rumour? It sounds plausible. There's too many myths about Mr Smith
It is a crazy story. Probably like many Fall stories it was full of hyperbole. I seem to remember reading that it was a UK subsidiary of Motown, and yes, that particular line closed down any likelihood that they would sign them. But I don't think it reached the ears of any of the famous faces that often get attributed. Quincy Jones? Even if the UK contact had wanted to sign them, is there anything even remotely Fall-like on Motown? I don't think it would have gotten far even without The Classical. What a great song though! The questionable use of that particular word is hard to justify, especially 40 years on. But a powerful opener that leads off a masterpiece of an album.
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249 That's the problem. You end up believing everything because nothing is true. A million Fall fans can't be wrong, but you try to find one... I'm 61yrs young and so far I've found 2... I've been searching for 45yrs Still searching... Otherwise I wouldn't be here.
Can you remember the name of the project MES did with Filthy Phil and his cohorts? I thought it was Matador. It isn't. It begins with an M. I don't think it ever got beyond the studio but I saw it on UA-cam. MES's most casual performance but it was stunning... Around the same time as Plug Myself In with D.O.S.E. or slightly earlier. My mate is into Motorhead. He doesn't believe it happened. It happened.
Your analysis of the discography is absolutely fantastic and extremely detailed! Thank you for doing this.
Thank you for watching! And from you that is a huge compliment!
I never understood how non-British people could "get" Mark E Smith and the Fall, but I suppose genius can transcend culture. This is a great run through their discography. Thank you!
I am sure I am missing plenty by not being British but there is still so much to love about The Fall.
Thank you for the feedback.
I suppose it's akin to Brits getting the Blues musicians of the American South - or Chicago by way of - and early rock'n'roll by extension of that - going back to the early sixties. Or like with Northern Soul and Motown (both examples retrieved many American artists from utter obscurity). And yet the British Invasion took the states by storm nonetheless.
So, something like, "Yeah, yeah, industrial estate," I'll never fully understand it but I get the gist. I also enjoy discovering little allusions by happenstance, e.g. I only recently learned that Wigan Casino was a Northern Soul club.
Now a band like Lindisfarne puts me at a bit more of a loss, and I've no idea why there might be an A-Bomb on Wardour Street, although I intuit such a thing would be a Suspect Device indeed. ; ) Cheers from across the pond.
It's easy to get The Fall if you're Irish or Scottish
And we're not "British".
We're Celts. Same as the Welsh.
I grew up in Oklahoma in the 70s and 80s with almost no exposure to good music, but had a feeling that there had to be something out there that I would like--something that would be my kind of music. And at the age of 23 in 1989 happened to push "play" on a German friend's portable mono cassette player that began to play "Frenz" from "The Frenz Experiment". 22 seconds in, I heard Mark's voice saying "Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah...." and I knew I had discovered my band for life! For me, they are the only band that really matters.
@@nwra7211 That's what happened to ALL of us.
That's why we're still here after all these years... that's why we aren't leaving.
A huge task to assess the fall’s catalogue - good on you.
Thanks & thanks for watching
I'm 61yrs young.
I can track my life by Fall albums. I know exactly where I was when each of them were released.
I met Mark once. He'd just finished a poetry reading in Trinity College, Dublin. He was looking for a decent pub. I took him to a pub I was barred from. It was funny.
That's a great anecdote - so did they let you in the pub?
@@awarewolves1712 Ob course they did... I had MES with me.
The funniest part of it all is that I used to DJ in the same pub a couple of months earlier. I got barred for playing Wu Tang shit before it was acceptable.
It was a different time. Everyone had short hair. There was no internet. Nobody used bad language, except Ol' Dirty.
@@tonysmyth4116 Ah, that makes it even better. ODB was a genius, hell all the Wu Tang's records are fantastic. Have you heard Death Grips? If not, search "Exmilitary" and give it a listen.
@@tonysmyth4116 That is indeed a great anecdote. I am not sure I would have had the confidence to approach MES.
Well, Wu Tang Clan ain't nuthing ta f'wit!
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249
The poetry reading was a tiny event. I only knew it was on because a mate told me his mate organised it. 30 people in the audience, tops. No band...
Guess what happened?
That's right, EVERYBODY went backstage and had a few cans.
And when the rider ran out Mark asked ME where the nearest decent pub was.
I panicked and chose the nearest one that was decent, forgetting that I was barred.
And that's how I plucked up the courage to talk to MES and fucked it up at the same time.
I'm no hero.
Thank you. You're the only person I've seen on UA-cam to really assess the Fall's music on an intellectual level.
Thanks. Hoping to make some new Fall fans.
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249 You can't "make" Fall fans. Fall fans exist...
They just don't know it yet.
Absolutely fantastic video
Great video !!
Great stuff
Thank you! And thanks for watching!
Thanks for this. Like you said at the beginning of the video, getting into their discography can be quite daunting. Your guide is welcome
Thanks for watching and thanks for the feedback.
The "Hip Priests and Kamerades" compilation is a good intro the the earlier Fall.
WOW!
I'm absolutely stunned.
This is my favourite video on UA-cam so far.
Where is part 2?
Will there be a part 3?
Wow! Thanks! That will go straight to my head.
Part 2 - ua-cam.com/video/oB8C24C2XKA/v-deo.html
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249 just watched it Bro... I don't know how you do it... and then you do it twice...
I'm stunned.
Fucking fantastic!
Thanks--very comprehensive, or as comprehensive as time allows. And great quoted lyrics--with only a few errors ; ) 35:48 is utterly fantastic. Also, I have that comic. I wish she would come out with part 2.
Thank you for watching! And yeah, when that popped up on Curb Your Enthusiasm it was an unlikely Larry David/Fall crossover.
That Una Baines comic is great. Agree there needs to be more.
Enjoyed this. Found this clip by clicking on your comments off the combing the stacks videos.
I love the Fall but my family hates them.
Wish Slang King and Just Step Sideways got mentioned 😢
Thanks for watching! I certainly have people in my life who are a hard sell on The Fall. No disrespect to either of those songs, their catalog is so full of gems it was hard to mention them all.
The Classical and Smile. Two mountains of Fall-ish intensity.
I also like Room to Live , very much !
Very unerappreciated.
You remember that song , oh about ten years ago , with the lyric , ' why do you want to put stars in your eyes ' ? . Well Mark E Smith made that reference on the song Room to Live .
@@MadderMel I had to look that up. Starz in their eyes - Just Jack? Did they ever acknowledge being Fall fans?
Just Jack ! That's right , I never knew if they were Fall fans or not , it wouldn't surprise me though ! Anyway , I subscribed to your channel , I really did like these 2 Fall videos ! You did a great job of reviewing the records ! He really was quite remarkable wasn't he , the like we will never see again !
@@MadderMel iA genius! Even on his bad days.
Thanks maybe that will be the motivation to do some more videos and cover some more groups.
I played On ! Brother today !!
Thanks for all your comments and for watching!
I did too, and then I played O! Brother. (I think it's the 12" version.)
... and that's how I ended up here.
[True story]
I was very skeptical before you started speaking, but you really impressed me with your factual knowledge and solid interpretation of an eccentric subject.
Kudos to you ( I've never really understood what a 'kudo' is, but I think it's a plaudit, whatever a plaudit might be.) Anyway, well done and thanks for your hard work.
Long time Fall fan.
Thank you! I am relieved a long time Fall fan could find something to enjoy. I was aiming more for new Fall listeners. Probably because some of the Fall's fanbase are extremely knowledgeable and lived a lot of this. That can be pretty intimidating.
I am with you on kudos and plaudits, but thank you for the sentiment.
Best !!
Creep , should've been a hit !!
Yes!
I love every version of The Fall but my favourite two are the versions with Brix.
Yes, Peel Sess version !
This was fun ❤
Thanks for watching!
Somehow, through all the great weirdness that is The Fall, one of the primary reasons I'm such a huge fan is that the majority of people hate their music on first listen and I've never met anyone in person who claims to be a Fall fan. I must be doing something right.
Same. And seeing them live. Were they great? brilliant? or a bloody racket? Weirdly compelling. Saw them many times but still not sure what I was seeing. Maybe that was the secret, the unknowing.
@mesolithicman164 I'm an American, and never got to see Mark play. He didn't make too many trip across the pond, and when he did, something bad usually happened to him, so I can't blame him for not coming. I had tickets to the NY show, but he never made it back over. RIP Mark
I've been a Fall fan since Witch Trials.
Dragnet was never released in my neighbourhood, (ireland), as far as I know. I could never find it.
I could find everything else, but never Dragnet. (Back in the vinyl daze)
Then I moved to London around the time of Extricate and got a job in Tower Records.
I stole so many CDs back then.
The rest is history.
Good history.
Dragnet a very good record !
You got subbed when you started talking...
Thank you!
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249 Thank you man! Seems like I have found a person who can explain "Early Days of Channel Fuehrer" to me. Greets from Zagreb, Croatia!
@@tompanoname3579 Not me, unfortunately. But try this - annotatedfall.doomby.com/pages/the-annotated-lyrics/early-days-of-channel-fuhrer.html
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249 Not a problem. I respect your attitude towards it. It's a thing like, who ever I ask, no one want's to talk about it. I'll keep on searching but still remaining here cos you make very good videos. Greets from Balkan hellhole.
@@tompanoname3579 It is one of my favorite Fall tracks. Beautiful and captivating. And even funny - "Where've all the choccies gone?"
From all the analyses I have read, it might still be MES traveling and landing at Heathrow.
But it does seem to be hinting at more. And I think that whatever that is will remain just out of reach, at least for me.
One reason they never had a hit
We all listened to Radio 1 in those days , never heard the Fall on daytime radio , of course John Peel and others at night time , but never in the day !
I bet all those creepy daytime DJ's hated The Fall
Interesting. Was it possible to reach people outside the Radio 1 stranglehold? Relentless touring? Music TV shows?
Certainly John Peel helped an enormous amount , being his favorite band , and he was very influential of course !
He managed to get them their first appearance on The Tube , which at that time was the cool music show to be on !
I saw them twice in the early eighties , so I guess touring was good for them !
And also getting involved with Michael Clarke probably brought a much larger audience !
I think around that time they did have a couple of cover songs in the charts , Ghost in my House and Victoria !
And I guess just sheer talent , also he was in the music papers a lot in those days , usually being a bit naughty , but some people like that !
It's forever baffling why the masses like ' nice songs ' , well not baffling , but they just aren't open to anything else !
@@MadderMel Thanks for that insight. I live in such a naive bubble and assume that good music will be heard. But you are right, there are so many gatekeepers even now, and so many people that gravitate to the easily digestible.
What about the rumour that they were signed to Tamla Mowtown and got dropped because of the first verse in the The Classical?
"This is the home of the brave
This is the home of the Brave
Where are the obligiitary (N-word)s
Hey there fuckface
Hey there fuck face"
Is that just a rumour?
It sounds plausible.
There's too many myths about Mr Smith
It is a crazy story. Probably like many Fall stories it was full of hyperbole. I seem to remember reading that it was a UK subsidiary of Motown, and yes, that particular line closed down any likelihood that they would sign them. But I don't think it reached the ears of any of the famous faces that often get attributed. Quincy Jones?
Even if the UK contact had wanted to sign them, is there anything even remotely Fall-like on Motown? I don't think it would have gotten far even without The Classical.
What a great song though! The questionable use of that particular word is hard to justify, especially 40 years on. But a powerful opener that leads off a masterpiece of an album.
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249
That's the problem.
You end up believing everything because nothing is true.
A million Fall fans can't be wrong, but you try to find one...
I'm 61yrs young and so far I've found 2...
I've been searching for 45yrs
Still searching...
Otherwise I wouldn't be here.
Can you remember the name of the project MES did with Filthy Phil and his cohorts? I thought it was Matador. It isn't.
It begins with an M.
I don't think it ever got beyond the studio but I saw it on UA-cam.
MES's most casual performance but it was stunning...
Around the same time as Plug Myself In with D.O.S.E. or slightly earlier.
My mate is into Motorhead.
He doesn't believe it happened.
It happened.
Somebody must know.
Google doesn't.
It wasn't a dream.
@@tonysmyth4116 That one I have never heard of.